29 October. Judge Dredd Megazine will include a bagged tribute to the late Carlos Ezquerra. "Carlos' death was a profound shock, not just to everyone at 2000AD but also to his fans across the world," says editor Matt Smith. "This small collection of his stories shows not just his evolution as an artist but also a sense of his incredibly consistent quality over more than four decades."

28 September. Glenn Fabry has revealed that he is suffering from lung cancer. "I’m coming out! I’ve got lung cancer, will keep you updated on what will be a fucking riveting story of love and hope and dreams! And lung cancer. Keep tuned to this channel! Or if not fuck off im Ill." here's a link to his Facebook page.

26 September. The new Striker weekly has been hit with distribution problems. Copies of issue 2 didn't reach W.H.Smith outlets. A limited reprint was ordered which should now have reached Smiths, but the knock-on effect will be a delay of a week before issue 3 is released.

... and farewell Joe Gordon. who left Forbidden Planet International on Friday the 7th. Sadly, FPI revamped their website in late August and appear not to have archived the old one, which is a huge shame.

7 September. "To the Death" by Simon Furman and Geoff Senior, which appeared online in 2016, will debut in the Great Big ComicScene Annual 2019, to be published in December 2018. Furman has said on Facebook that "there is more print TTD news coming as we move [into] 2019."

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Saturday, January 17, 2015

John Berry (1920-2009)

As an artist, John Berry—Jack to his family—was best known as a regular illustrator for Ladybird Books, notably their "People at Work", "Public Services" and the "Hannibal the Hamster" books by Raymond Howe.

John Leslie Berry was born in Hammersmith, London, on 9 June 1920, the son of John James Berry and his wife Grace Katharine (nee Marke), who were married shortly before Christmas 1919. His father, a railway guard, abandoned his family, leaving Grace to raise her five-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, Win.

Berry was educated locally before being accepted into Hammersmith College of Art in 1934. He earned a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy five years later but was unable to take up his place due to the outbreak of the Second World War, a disappointment he carried with him for years.

He volunteered for the R.A.F. in 1940 and served in the Western Desert and the Middle East. Whilst waiting for action ahead of entering Tobruk, Berry produced a poster advertising a national day of prayer. When this came to the attention of Air Marshal Arthur Tedder, Berry was seconded to the 8th Army as a war artist—the only war artist to be drawn from the ranks. Cressida Connolly quotes Berry describing the poor conditions in the Middle East: "I used to have a drawing board and if I left anything on it, the cockroaches would have eaten it by morning." His paintings were exhibited at the National Gallery and four, bought for £35 each, are now in the permanent collection of the Imperial War Museum.

During his war service, Berry made the acquaintance of Major James Riddell, who wrote children's books and, once demobbed, began publishing them himself, with illustrations by Berry. The venture was short-lived but it was through Riddell that Berry began to earn commissions for portraits, his subjects including the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh and Lady Astor.

He also began freelancing in advertising, most famously working McCann Erickson in 1951 when Esso tried to persuade everyone to "put a tiger in your tank," a popular slogan that began as a comic retort by Berry to the idea of drawing a tiger for the campaign. Berry was paid £25 for the suggestion, but remained associated with Esso advertising for the next ten years.

Berry also had a sideline, run through Harrods, producing oil paintings based on customers' photographs.

He was married in 1951 to June Marjorie East, a librarian at Hammersmith Library, and the Berrys were soon raising a family of five—three sons and two daughters. By the late 1950s Berry needed to find work that could provide him with a bread and butter income. He found it with Ladybird Books, with whom he was to be associated for 18 years. Around the same time he was producing covers for paperbacks published by Corgi, Four Square, Panther Books and Penguin and illustrations for Reader's Digest.

His most notable achievement at Ladybird was probably his contribution to the "People at Work" series, which depicted smiling men and women in a wide variety of roles and occupations, from manufacturing cars to farming the land, from the policeman to the postman. Along with the Peter and Jane 'Keyword' books, they typified what readers remember most fondly about Ladybird books and provide a nostalgic warmth for the long-lost age of cheerful, bustling industry and prosperity they depict. Berry himself never thought of them as anything more than commercial art.

Berry continued to produce portraits and in 1986 a portrait of the Princess of Wales was auctioned to raise money for Help the Aged. He painted a second portrait of her for the HQ of the Royal Hussars at Tidworth, Hampshire. He also painted President George H. Bush (senior) and produced oil paintings of native Americans and civil war scenes for sale in the US.

In 2004, an exhibition of work by Berry and fellow Ladybird artist Martin Aitchison was held at the Simon Finch Gallery in London. There was another exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham, the following year.

He died on 10 December 2009, aged 89. Following his first wife's death in 1986, he married, in 1989, Jessie Showell, the widowed mother of a neighbour, who, along with his five children, survived him.

2 comments:

Sad news, indeed. I believe that Martin Aitchison (b 1919) is the only artist still living from the classic age of Ladybird books. Of course your 2 blogs are connected as some artists such as CF Tunnicliffe illustrated both Ladybird and Brooke Bond books/cards.Harry Wingfield who died a few years ago aged 91 was probably the last classic artist to pass away before John Berry. RIP John.

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